Fake IRS ” Important Documents ” delivers Trickbot

The second in today’s Trickbot versions has reverted to the tried & trusted Macros in word docs. This one targets the USA rather than UK but keeping to the same theme of the country’s Tax & Revenue Authority. They have also kept on using the same compromised websites to deliver the Trickbot binary, although a different version to the earlier UK run spoofing HMRC

This example is an email containing the subject of ” Important Documents ” pretending to come from Internal Revenue Service but actually coming from a look-a-like or typo-squatted domain “no-reply@irs-docs.com” with a malicious word doc attachment is today’s latest spoof of a well-known company, bank or public authority delivering Trickbot banking Trojan

Email Details

This secure email was sent to: victim@victimsdomain.com
Transaction error correction,

IRS Audit Office completed investigation on case #827112IRS and determined that the return of the erroneously transfer in automatic mode is impossible In this regard, we require you to check, complete and sign attached documents.

Please send completed and signed documents to +1 877 364-6896.

Failure to Comply Law and Regulations IRS is suppressed in accordance with publication: How Criminal Investigations Are Initiated.

Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this message may be confidential and legally privileged. It is intended only for use of the individual named. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that the disclosure, copying, distribution, or taking of any action in regards to the contents of this fax – except its direct delivery to the intended recipient – is strictly prohibited. If you have received this fax in error, please notify the sender immediately and destroy this cover sheet along with its contents, and delete from your system, if applicable.

Screenshot:

Fake IRS email

Inland Revenue Service has not been hacked or had their email or other servers compromised. They are not sending the emails to you. They are just innocent victims in exactly the same way as every recipient of these emails.

What has happened is that the criminals sending these have registered various domains that look like genuine Company, Bank, Government or message sending services. Normally there is only newly registered domain that imitate Companies House, HMRC, another Government department, a Bank, file hosting service or a message sending service that can easily be confused with the genuine organisation in some way, that are hosted on & sending emails from 4 different servers.. Some days however we do see dozens or even hundreds of fake domains.

Today’s example of the spoofed domain is, as usual, registered via Godaddy as registrar. Because of new GDPR rules we cannot easily find the registrants name or any further details.

Malware Details

This malware doc file downloads from http://woodbeei.com/leap.bin which is a renamed .exe file ( VirusTotal) Gtag Ser 0626 ( the same as earlier today)

The alternate Download location is http://zicombd.com/leap.bin

All modern versions of word and other office programs, that is 2010, 2013, 2016 and 365, should open all Microsoft office documents that is Word docs, Excel spreadsheet files and PowerPoint etc that are downloaded from the web or received in an email automatically in “protected view” that stops any embedded malware, macros and DDE “exploit /Feature” and embedded ole objects from being displayed and running. Make sure protected view is set in all office programs to protect you and your company from these sorts of attacks and do not over ride it to edit the document. If the protected mode bar appears when opening the document DO NOT follow the advice they give to enable macros or enable editing to see the content. The document will have a warning message, but you will be safe.

Be aware that there are a lot of other dodgy word docs spreading that WILL infect you with no action from you, if you are still using an out dated or vulnerable version of word. This is a good reason to update your office programs to a recent version and stop using office 2003 and 2007. Many of us have continued to use older versions of word and other office programs, because they are convenient, have the functions and settings we are used to and have never seen a need to update to the latest super-duper version.

The risks in using older version are now seriously outweighing the convenience, benefits and cost of keeping an old version going.

What can be infected by this

At this time, these malicious macros only infect windows computers. They do not affect a Mac, IPhone, IPad, Blackberry, Windows phone or Android phone. The malicious word or excel file can open on any device with an office program installed, and potentially the macro will run on Windows or Mac or any other device with Microsoft Office installed. BUT the downloaded malware that the macro tries to download is windows specific, so will not harm, install or infect any other computer except a windows computer. You will not be infected if you do not have macros enabled in Excel or Word. These Macros, embedded Oles or DDE do not run in “Office Online” Open Office, Libre Office, Word Perfect or any other office program that can read Word or Excel files.